Push

Git · Reference cheat sheet

📖 Overview

git push uploads local commits (and optionally tags) to a remote. Set an upstream once with -u, prefer --force-with-lease over --force, and push tags deliberately.

🧩 Core concepts

• Upstream — -u records remote/branch for future push/pull.
• Fast-forward — remote tip must be ancestor unless forced.
• Force-with-lease — refuses overwrite if remote moved unexpectedly.
• Refspecs — git push origin local:remote maps branches explicitly.
• Tags — git push --tags or push a single tag by name.
• Delete remote branch — git push origin --delete branch.

💡 Examples

# First push of a feature branch
git push -u origin feature/checkout

# Subsequent pushes
git push

# Push to explicit remote/branch
git push origin main

# Safe force after rebase (preferred)
git push --force-with-lease origin feature/checkout

# Push one tag / all tags
git push origin v1.2.0
git push --tags

# Delete remote branch
git push origin --delete feature/checkout

# Dry run
git push --dry-run

⚠️ Pitfalls

• --force can destroy others’ commits — use --force-with-lease and branch protections.
• Pushing to the wrong remote/branch is common with multiple remotes — check git remote -v.
• Large binary blobs bloat history — use Git LFS before the first push.
• CI/CD may reject unsigned commits or unprotected force pushes on main.

🔗 Related

• Pull
• Fetch
• Branch
• Rebase
• Git LFS